Adam Smith, in his book, “An Inquiry into the Wealth of Nations” outlined the basic principles that we understand of economic liberalism today. That private ownership, free movement of capital and open mar-0kets are imperative for the accumulation of wealth. Smith’s basic tenants of capitalism have become a guiding light for the economic system, becoming deeply imbedded in every part of the global economic order. Liberalism as an economic ideology has had so much success that it has begun to threaten itself. The basic tenants of capitalism have also become not just a consensus, but become the basis for a new kind of global economic system, one in which large transnational corporations have created a global corporatist state, in which these …show more content…
What is a global corporatist state? Does that replace or modify the twentieth century’s states and nation-states as the most important global actors? Corporatism, as a concept, is not the easiest to define, there is the simple, nineteenth century view of corporatism, in which states organize on the basis of interest groups. However, while the economic interest of a corporation may certainly be a motivation, a transnational corporation certainly did not necessarily begin on the basis of a common economic interest. In more modern terms, corporatism has become more of a byword for crony capitalism. The best definition likely falls in line with the concept of crony capitalism. Corporatism is a system in which corporations and states have created, wittingly or unwittingly, a system in which states serve a structural role in the maintenance of international capital. In which corporations are aided and abetted by the state, sometimes at the cost of the citizens of the state. Tactics of neoliberalism and Keynesian economics in the last century, in which specifically large corporations both aided and were aided by states has created a system in which corporations are incredibly empowered, even over smaller state actors in the international